Grundig Ocean Boy 820 International, 1980, LW/MW/SW/FM

Production: Germany, 1980.

Bands: LW (146-270 kHz), MW (520-1611 kHz), SW1 (3.5-6.5 MHz), SW2 (6.5-12 MHz), SW3 (12-22 MHz), FM 88-108 MHz).

Cabinet: Plastic. Size 35x23x10cm. Weight 2.9kg.

Power: Batt (6xD) or AC.

Works perfectly despite its age.


The Grundig Ocean Boy 820 International is a big 1980 portable, with good sound quality and usable Short Wave reception. The inside reveals a clean PCB and big speaker. Wave selection is by two rotating switches. The top switch selects between Phono, FM, Long, Medium, and Short Wave, while the switch in the lower right corner selects between SW1, SW2, and SW3. The radio has some, but not all Tropical Bands: the 75 and 60 meter bands are on the SW1 dial, but the 90 and 120 meters are not covered. So far I've never been able to receive any stations on these bands, so the loss doesn't feel terrible, but with these bands I couldn't even continue trying.There is mechanical fine tuning. When pushed in, the tuning knob rotates three turns to pass the full dial, while when pulled out this takes about 20 turns. Below the dial you'll find an S-meter.